Steel Sheds - Plans, DIY?

We just bought a 4 x 3 steel shed from Stratco and it cost about $1000. Seems to me there's only a few hundred dollars worth of steel in what was delivered to us.

We need a bigger shed, later, about 10 x 6 or maybe even bigger. This little thing and the apparent ripoff made me think we should design our own, buy the steel, build it.

Found a thread here that talked a bit about that but it was from 2006, things may have changed a bit.

It suggested that you can't buy the steel yourself any cheaper than you can buy these 'kits' from the suppliers.

Is that still true?

Was I wrong about this 'ripoff' on the small 4x3 ? Or was I perhaps right on the 4 x 3 but when the sheds get larger the ripoffs get smaller or diminish to nothing?

I started googling because to design our own we need to know something about how they need to be built. We needed some plans. I couldn't find any. That thread mentioned that, too, suggesting no one is going to let you have plans until you buy the shed.

And some of them don't even give you plans then.

But the best ones do and this is a selling point, because the councils will accept their plans no problem.

So does anyone know about that aspect? Are plans available somewhere?

In a nutshell: what's the best way to go for sheds about that size - 10 x 6?

regards,

ab

Yes abrogard you were wrong about a rip off!

I finished a 4x3 potting shed for SWMBO recently, it is timber frame, the only steel is the roof sheets, ridge capping and flashing. Total cost for the colorbond roofing materials? $900, delivered.

So to get your whole 4x3 shed for $1000 delivered seems a bargain to me.

When I add up the cost of timber framing, weatherboards etc, I have spent considerably more than that.

I went through this "buy the materials and build your own" when I was looking for my shed 9 years ago. It isn't just a matter of getting the materials, you need engineers' calculations for your design to get council approval, when I priced that I gave up on the idea.

The cost of materials alone made it a marginal exercise.

Steel is an expensive commodity today.

You need to factor in more than the cost of the steel. The time it takes to build a shed costs money as well, even if you "pay yourself" a conservative $10 per hour. I bought a pre-fab shed and then added another third to it. The addition took me about five times longer than the original pre-fab.

But more importantly than all of that, whatever sized shed you build will be too small within six months. When I first built mine (6X12) I felt that it was extravagant, now it looks like a dingy little garden. I want more, more, more, MORE ....:D

Thank you for your replies.

I'll tell you how I did a swift calculation after my initial kinda 'shock' when I looked at what we'd got.

I thought total steel area = two sides at 4 x 2 plus two ends at 2 x 2 and a roof at roughly 4 x 3 = 40 square metres.

And I figured tin should cost somewhere in the area of $10 per square metre. So I thought $400 ballpark figure.

I've been googling around but it's apparently not easy to find prices quoted for corrugated iron or claddings. I've had no luck yet. To make this not a ripoff the price per square has got to be somewhere like $18/$19 square metre. Is this what it is?

Factoring in time is a good point. But sometimes it is a willing sacrifice in order to gain experience, understanding and pleasure of achievement.

That's the area I'm in at the moment. Seems to me I know absolutely nothing - not.a.single.thing - because every bloody day I find myself obliged to attempt another thing that I have never done before.

I can't understand how your colorbond roofing for your timber potting shed cost $900. Looks like there's something wrong there, doesn't it? Perhaps your roof was very, very fancy compared to the one supplied with this shed. The supplied roof is nothing more than a piece of C channel (for want of a better name, excuse my ignorance) which spans the shed fore and aft, and three or four sheets of corrugated iron which are meant to lay across it, bend of their own weight onto the sides, and be tacked down with pop rivets. Three sheets of iron shouldn't cost $900 - else how'd I get the whole shed for $1000.

I can well believe 'any shed will be too small in six months....'

We want about 10 x 6 after this. Then a granny flat (of steel) and then we're out of room on the block. So then we'll want a new home, more space and a REAL shed..... far, far in the future....

Thanks for the input. I'll keep looking. All I really need, I guess, is the cost per square metre generally for steel and then I'll know if one's likely to be streets ahead purchasing your own steel and cutting it or not.

regards,

ab

Your calculations were not only swift, they were based on incorrect assumptions:no:.

I take it your little shed also has a door, perhaps even a window?

Show me where you are going to buy these sheets of corrugated iron that cover 4 metres with "3 or 4 sheets", try 5.5 sheets, I used 6. It has a 45deg pitch, so the roof sheets are quite long (pretty scary when you are on o)

Then her little potting shed has a 1500mm verandah, anther 6 x 1500mm, add 2 4 mtr gutters, gutter brackets, ridge capping 6 lenghts of flashing, screws, pop rivets, gutter ends, delivery ($75 or so).

Then when it comes tour 10x6, you are looking at a steel frame, the little c channels you are talking about won't cut the mustard there, the various connecting brackets, bolts, purlins, I could go on.

Take a drive out to Stratco and start pricing all that stuff.

No, not really.

Ballpark figure's all I was going for and I reckon that's what I got. Because, sure, it has a door but that's almost nothing more than a sheet of tin and it doesn't have anything else.

So a swift calculation for 'ballpark' was valid enough using that area calc.

More precision requires more precision. But on present results I don't need more precision. The rough calc shows a discrepancy of about $500. Allowing for the channel on the door and top of bottom of the walls isn't going to explain that. There's no window.

But that's my little 4 x 3.

I suggested your (or his? hers? it? that?) wooden shed might have had a much fancier roof than mine. I did. I covered that.

Yes, 3 or 4 sheets might be wrong - my mistake, too hasty - but that doesn't affect the calculation. The point is 3 x 4 = 12 squ metres which is $120 at $10 per square. That's a country mile and a bit more from $900 isn't it? And that was the point.


Then we get to the 'big shed', the real stuff. Well I covered that, too. I inferred I was willing to believe that when sheds get bigger the 'ripoffs get smaller or diminish to nothing...'

I guess it is what I said: I need a price list. I still haven't found one. My computer just developed some kind of weird hassle with my antivirus prog throwing up a message that then won't go away..... I'll have to fix that and then I'll continue looking.

thanks for your input

regards,

ab :)

Build it out of timber:D That's what I'm doing

Just to give you an idea on pricing - I built a 12 x 7.5 colorbond shed with a 12 x 3 awning off the side (so over 120m2 total under cover) for about $7000 dollars. That does not include the concrete slab. I had to fabricate a few parts (knee and apex brackets, etc) - but not to difficult if you have access to a welder.

roofing iron is $10.30/lm and each covers 800mm wide.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by weisyboy

roofing iron is $10.30/lm and each covers 800mm wide.

---

I think you will find it covers 760mm Carl.

Is that price for Colorbond? I seem to remember paying something like $13.50l/m.

depends where you buy it. that was the price just after christmas.

yer 800mm on walls (single lap) and 760mm on roof (double lap).

760 is the cover for an 800 wide sheet. But then the question is are you using coro, trimdek/monoclad, or cliplock. It all varies. Allow 760 cover and you won't find yourself a sheet short at the end. Trust me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by abrogard

I thought total steel area = two sides at 4 x 2 plus two ends at 2 x 2 and a roof at roughly 4 x 3 = 40 square metres.

And I figured tin should cost somewhere in the area of $10 per square metre. So I thought $400 ballpark figure.

---

HI

what holds all these sheets together?

Dont you need rafters and posts and rails and elbow joints and .......

yep ya still gotta make the frame.

unless his 4 x 3 is one of those el cheepo ones with the sheets held together by a but of tiny pressed metal channel around teh end.

i was jsut giving him teh price of the sheetign he saw after.

custom orb (corigated) sheets are 850mm wide. :2tsup:

My SIL wanted to replace the lean-to beside his house (in a NSW country town). I drew up some plans, with sketchup, based on the existing wood framed structure, and took them to the local Lysaght dealer after calculating the quantities from the Bluescope Colourbond stock sizes.
"No worries, mate. Don't get stock sizes and cut them, we'll make you up a kit cut to size." It was cheaper than buying all the bits, cutting and fitting them and a lot quicker. They even sourced the laser light panels for the roof, the fixings etc. All delivered ready to go.
I love the way people in the bush do business!
Cheers
Graeme

Well I still didn't find a price list of my own, so using the figures provided above we've got linear metres at $13 and a cover of .75 metres.

This means a linear metre is covering 3/4 of a square metre for $13.
This means we need another 1/3 of this to complete a square metre, right?

So that's about $17 - $18 total, let's say $17.

So 40 square metres now adds up to tin price of $680.

You could argue that's not a rip off. About a $300 profit from a $1000 sale. Profit on material costs that is. But I'd argue that material costs are virtually all they have: machines would automatically cut off whatever lengths they dial in.

'El Cheapo'? Yes, of course. Though it is a bit of a misnomer. It's not cheap, it's expensive, as things at the bottom end of the market often are. It's 'el cheapo' construction, not 'el cheapo' price.

That's my whole point. That's why this thread is here. I was looking - we were looking - for the cheapest way out to find something to store stuff in until we can get a bigger shed.

We went with this, too hurriedly I guess and I got shocked a bit when I looked at the heap of materials when they were delivered. So I've questioned it - $1000 for this?

And the reply seems to be that it is indeed a fair ripoff. $700 of material at uncompetitive retail prices.

There's nothing else. The door. I told you there's no roof worth mentioning. There's no frame. There's nothing. The whole thing is designed to be held together (at the corners and along the wall top) by pop rivets.

It's a fairly standard item. You see them everywhere.

But there remains the question of "Can you beat it?"

Because there's so many reports of people saying they tried to do it themselves and found a kit supplied was cheaper than anything they could do. There's one or two posters in this thread saying precisely that.

I'm not sure we're comparing apples with apples but if we are then it sure is an interesting contention.

I've just got to find a price list - or just give a call and get a quote - for these simple quantities. Then I'll know.

Meanwhile I just feel a bit red faced. Erecting this thing in my backyard is like declaring to the world that I'm a dummy without enough sense to provide the tin for my own shed and instead throw hundreds of dollars away to get someone to do it for me.

I've paid $1000 for the material I've got lying on the ground out there, material that I could have got for $700 max, it seems.

So I feel like a dummy. You can all have a bit of a laugh at me.

My mate in the bush (yep, that's the place to be) nearly fell down, on the phone, when I told him. He said I should have shopped for a second hand shed. Or should have asked suppliers for imperfect tin.

I learn the hard way, always, I think, wish I didn't but I do.

Lastly: build out of timber? I'd love to. I'd enjoy the learning and the doing and it'd be a pleasure to occupy it and look at it afterwards. But prohibitively expensive for us, right now.

That seems to be an end to it all, seems to me.

Thanks for all the posts.

regards,

ab :)